Mini Stories
by dmitri-lowence
Summary: Here are some mini stories I thought would happen in Twilight! Enjoy! NEW! Edward's version of how he met Carlisle and became a vampire! Now finished!
1. The Carnival

The Carnival

I woke up Saturday morning to a throbbing pain in my leg. It was still hurting after three weeks of being in a cast. Surviving my brush with death didn't come without a price.

"Good morning. How did you sleep?" I turned to look and Edward was instantly at my bedside.

"Wouldn't you like to know." I said, smiling at him.

"Yes I would." he replied. "But unfortunately, we don't have time for that today. You need to get dressed, it's nearly time to leave."

"Leave? Where are we going?" I asked.

But he was ignoring me. "Alice." he called out my doorway, "It's time to get Bella dressed." I didn't hear the shuffling of feet up the stair, but, none the less, Alice was in my room instantly. "Now hurry Alice or we'll be late."

"Don't worry Edward, it won't take long." And she shooed him out so she could dress me. "Edward has a surprise for you today."

"How is today any different than any other day?" I asked.

"You might like this one." Alice replied.

"Wow, that would be a surprise, highly unlikely, but a definite surprise." I remarked. Alice picked a black t-shirt with the writing _bite me_ written on it. I remembered getting it at a store in Port Angels. When I'd seen it, it had instantly made me think of Edward. She also chose a pair of blue jeans that had wide legs, so my cast would fit in them. As she was helping me pull on the pants, I noticed that it wasn't raining outside today. It was still heavily clouded and the sun wasn't shinning, but it wasn't raining. Alice then went on to groom my hair and apply the necessary make-up.

"There we are, your all ready." She said, stepping back to get a look at her handy work.

"It's about time." Said Edward, leaning on the frame of my door. "Nice shirt." He added, smirking.

"Thanks, I got it in your honor." I replied.

"I'm flattered." He remarked. "Let's go now."

"Where are you taking me?" I asked. It seemed like I said this a lot, especially lately. It was becoming somewhat of a catch phrase of mine.

"You'll see when we get there, as usual." He said.

"Of course." I replied.

"Don't worry Bella, we'll all be there." Said Alice. By all I'm sure she meant all of the Cullens. Edward's brothers and sister Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, and maybe even his parents, Dr. Carlisle and his wife Esmè.

My heart leapt with excitement. Maybe this was finally it. Maybe Edward had finally decided to change me.

"No Bella. When Alice says that all of my family will be there, she does not mean I am going to change you into one of us." Edward said.

"How did you-" I started.

"Just because I can't read your mind, doesn't mean I don't know what your thinking." He replied.

"Hmm." I pouted and sat back in the seat of Edward's Volvo. I hated when he said he would never change me. He could be so stubborn some times.

"We're nearly here." He said a few seconds later. At the speed Edward drove at, it didn't take him long to get anywhere.

I peered out the window in curiosity to see where we were. There were many cars parked on either side of the road, among them, I recognized Carlisle's Mercedes. I wracked my brain for events that were going on this weekend. And then I thought of it.

"We're going to the fair, aren't we?" I said, starring at Edward.

"Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner." He replied, smiling at me.

Alice had been right, I did like this surprise. I had always enjoyed carnivals. Cotton candy, rides that make you so sick you throw up the cotton candy, animals, games, I liked the whole thing.

"How could I have ever doubted you Alice?" I said as Edward pulled into a parking spot.

"I forgive you Bella." She replied, "Now, let's go have some fun."

The rest of the Cullens met us when we got in the gate.

"We were beginning to think that you weren't coming." Said Carlisle as we approached them.

"We wouldn't miss it." I said, excitement rapidly growing inside me.

"Someone is very excited." Esmè said, enjoying my glee.

"Yes." I admitted sheepishly.

"Well then, we'd better start." Edward said. "With your leg, we'll be lucky to do half the things I'd like to."

"Alright, we'll meet up with you later." Carlisle said and Edward started leading me away.

"So, what would you like to do first?" he asked.

I thought for a minute. "Corndog. I want a corndog."

"Okay." He said. I could tell he hadn't expected me to say that, but never the less, bought me one. I ate it and enjoyed every bite.

"What does that taste like?" he asked as he watched me eat it.

"Would you like a bite?" I teased, remembering the time he had taken a bite of pizza during lunch at school.

"No thanks. What I mean is, does it taste good?" he clarified.

"Yes, it does." I said, satisfied that I knew something that the great Edward Cullen didn't.

"What do you want to do now?" he asked after I'd finished scarffing down my corndog.

"Lets go see what rides they have, for later." I replied.

"You like to go on rides?" ha asked, awe struck.

"Yes. Why shouldn't I?" I asked.

"You don't exactly seem like the type that would enjoy fast, spinning rides." He hesitantly replied.

"Well, I do. A lot." I said. "Do you?"

"I don't know. I've never had a reason to go to a carnival before now." He admitted.

"You've never been to one?" I asked, stunned.

"No. This is a learning experience for me." He replied.

"Well, you came to the right person to teach you." I said. "Onward to the rides."

"I'm no expert, but isn't going on rides right after you've eaten a bad thing? Won't we be in danger of seeing your corndog again?"

"Only inexperienced ride riders experience that." I corrected. "I however, am very experienced. In fact, if this were school, I'd have a Ph. D."

"Okay Ms. Swan, you have my complete and undivided attention." He said.

I first led him to an easy ride. "Okay Edward, this one is really easy. It's called a Ferris Wheel." I said as we approached the giant spinning wheel.

"Bella. I said I'd never been to a fair before, not that I didn't know what one was." He said, giving me a look underestimation.

"Right, sorry." I replied.

We went over to the ticket booth and bought tickets for the rides. We then went back over to the Wheel and got in line.

"Bella. Hi." Said a voice I recognized instantly. I turned around to find Jessica and Mike walking toward us. "Hi Edward."

"Hello Bella. Cullen." Said Mike.

"Hi guys, what's up?" I asked as they reached us.

"We came for a day of fun, what else." Said Jessica. "I'm surprised to see you here Bella. I didn't know you liked things like this."

"Not many people do." I said, glancing up at Edward.

"So, when did you get here?" Mike asked me, completely ignoring Edward.

"A little while ago. Do they have this every year? I don't remember them having it when I visited Charlie." I said.

"They didn't until a couple years ago. It keeps getting better every year." Jessica replied.

"It's our turn." Said Edward.

"We'll catch up with you guys later." I said to them, waving good-bye.

"See ya Bella. Bye Edward." Said Jessica, giving a little wave back.

We gave our tickets to the man at the gate and got in one of the buckets. I watched out the side of the bucket as we went higher in the air. The wheel went around and around many times, occasionally stopping to let other people on. Then, it stopped at the top.

"Wow, look at the view up here." I said, staring at all the little figures moving beneath us and all the cars in the distance. "I think you can see the whole city of Forks from up here."

"You probably can." He said, looking out his side of the bucket. Then, it started moving again. When the ride was over, we got off and went to the next, which happen to be the swings.

"This is more like it." Said Edward as he got on. Then the ride started. We were flying in circles faster and faster by the second. The world around us was going by in a flash. I glanced over at Edward. He was smiling bigger than I'd ever seen before.

"This is the best!" I shouted over to him as the ride seamed to go faster yet.

"Yeah." He replied.

When the ride slowed and then stopped, I looked at him again. His hair was even crazier than normal and I'm sure mine was too.

"Nice hair." He said to me as we got in line for the next ride.

"Same to you." I replied, smirking at his head of crazy bronze fuzz. The next ride was the Tornado, a ride where you sit four in a pod and you spin a steering wheel in the center while the whole ride spins as well. We got into the pod that the man instructed us to and found that there were two other people seated there as well.

"Hey guys. Are you having fun?" asked Alice as Edward and I took the two remaining seats next to her and Jasper.

"Yes." I replied. I could hear Edward softly muttering something and I think Jasper was muttering something back. I starred at him in puzzlement and he looked at me.

"I was only telling Jasper what a good teacher you are." He innocently told me.

"Sure you were." I replied skeptically. Then the ride started. We spun in circles as the whole ride moved as well.

"Weeee!" Alice and I yelled as Jasper and Edward spun the pod faster and faster. Then the ride began to slow.

"That was awesome!" Alice said as we all stood outside the gate of the ride.

"Bella, you don't look so good. Do you feel alright?" Jasper asked, as I held my stomach in pain.

"No. I think I'm going to puke." I said as I ran over to the nearest garbage can and disposed of my corndog.

"I thought you didn't puke after rides." Edward said when he came over to join me by the garbage can.

"I don't." I replied, "I've just never spun that fast on a ride before."

"Sorry. I think that was our fault." Said Jasper. He and Alice had now come to join us. "We aren't used to riding with people who. . . dispose of their food."

"It's alright. I'm over it." I replied, standing up from over the can.

"Why don't we go do some games now." Suggested Edward.

"Okay." I said. "Would you guys like to join us?" I asked Alice and Jasper.

"Thanks, but I think we're going to go on a few more rides." Said Alice and grabbed Jaspers hand. Edward had obviously noticed something I hadn't because once they were gone he muttered, "Yeah right."

We walked around the park aimlessly for a while. Edward was looking for something and wasn't going to stop until he found it. He did finally stop though, in front of the bottle game.

"You knock down all the bottles in one shot and I'll give ya any prize in the place." The carnie taunted, handing Edward a ball. He obviously mistook Edward for someone weak because when he threw the ball and knocked all the bottles clear off the stand and sent them all flying three feet, the man stood and starred at him with his mouth open.

"We'll take that one." Said Edward, pointing at the gigantic stuffed frog hanging from above the man. He pulled it down, only taking his eye off of Edward for a second and handed him the frog. "Here you go." Edward said, handing it to me.

"Thank you." I said, taking it and hugging it to make sure it was nice and fluffy.

We walked around for a little while, looking at all the rides. We met Esmè and Carlisle once when we had stopped to get my beloved cotton candy. I ate it greedily as Edward told Carlisle all that we had done and Esmè told me about past carnival experiences.

"Let's go on a couple more rides." I said as we past them again.

He hesitated, "Bella, I really don't want to see your cotton candy again."

"You won't, as long as we don't go on anything that spins faster than the speed of light." I assured him.

"If you insist." He replied, and led me back to the rides. "Which one is it going to be this time?"

"You chose." I said.

"How about that one?" He asked pointing toward the stomach crusher, the ride that takes you up fifty feet and then drops you straight down.

"Yeah, let's go." I said, hobbling as fast as I could toward it.

We handed the operator our tickets and went in. "Can you hold this?" I asked him, handing him my frog.

"Sure." He said reluctantly taking it and setting in the platform next to him. The ride went up slowly and stopped when we reached the top. We stayed up there for what seemed like an eternity and then it dropped. I screamed as loud as I could and could hear Edward laughing beside me. Then it was over as soon as it had started. I unstably got off and walked away, Edward supporting more than half of my weight.

"That was lots of fun!" he excitedly told me as I picked up my frog from the platform and headed out the gate of the ride.

"Hey Edward!" yelled Emmett from across the way, "Come on the bumper cars with us." We walked over to meet him and found that Rosalie, Alice and Jasper were also there. He walked up the ramp toward the ticket man with them, but turned to face me when he realized I wasn't behind him.

"Are you coming?" he asked.

"Leg?" I pointed out.

"You could be my passenger." He said

"No. You go ahead, I'll watch. Besides, I need a little break." But he wasn't taking no for an answer. He walked back down the ramp, scooped me up and carried me back up it. He handed the man tickets for both of us and carried me over to a blue sparkly car. He then set me down and allowed me to put myself in the car. He got in the other side and we were off. Emmett immediately rammed us in the side and in return he was rammed by Alice. Meanwhile, Rosalie was after Jasper.

"Come on bro, come and get me!" she taunted.

"As you wish." He said and backed up and rammed her.

We were now untangled from our mess and were going after Emmett for payback, but Jasper got to him first, so instead we went for Alice. We got her, but Rosalie got us. They went around hitting each other, all of them laughing like little kids.

When the ride was over, we all got off and the laughter followed us.

"That was the most fun I've had in a while." Chuckled Emmett. He sounded like a large bear.

"I'm glad to see you're all having fun, but it's getting late and you need to take Bella home, don't you Edward?" asked Carlisle.

"Yes, you're right." He replied, "It's almost 10:30, we don't want Charlie to worry."

"I'll see you all later." I said and waved to them as Edward led me toward the exit. They all waved back and called good-byes to me as well.

I got in the Volvo and Edward headed toward Charlie's house. When we got there, he got out and had my door open before I could even reach for the handle. "Charlie isn't watching out the window as usual." Said Edward as he led me toward the door.

"Really, that's different." I said. We were now standing on the front stoop.

"You know what, there was something I forgot to do at the fair." He said as he looked down at me.

"What?" I asked. I thought we'd done pretty much everything. I couldn't think of anything we'd missed that he would've wanted to do.

"This." He said and leaned down and gently pressed his lips to mine.

"Goodnight Bella." He said and walked back to his car. He didn't leave though until he saw I was safely in the house.


	2. Costume Party

Costume Party

"Bella, do I have to?" whined Edward. "You know I don't do things like this."

"Well, Edward Anthony Mason Cullen, tonight you will." I replied sternly. It was October 31, Halloween, and Jessica had invited us to a costume party at her house.

"Come on, it will be fun." I persisted.

"Bella, why must you insist on me partaking in these childish human activities? Isn't Halloween a holiday that little kids are supposed to celebrate?"

"I thought you would've been excited. Tonight is the one night you can be who you really are."

"You sound like Emmett." He mumbled. "And do you think I want to act like what I am? I hate what I am, you know that as well."

"Then go as a werewolf or something, that'd be original."

"That's not funny." He growled.

"Just a thought." I said.

He took a moment to compose himself and then said, "What are you going to be, smarty pants?"

"A fairy." I replied. "Alice and Esme took me shopping to day."

"When don't they take you shopping for an event? They'll probably buy you an elf costume for Christmas."

"Don't say that." I warned. "I will _never_ be an elf."

"Now you see where I'm coming from." He said.

"Well you have to be _something_." I insisted.

"Why don't you be a doctor? Carlisle could help you with that." Said Alice, appearing out of nowhere in my window. She was wearing the French Maids costume she had gotten today.

"Don't be ridiculous." He snapped at her. "They would think Bella was the tooth fairy."

"How about a gangster? That fits your personality real well." Said Rosalie, coming in the doorway. She was wearing a pirate costume Emmett had helped her pick out. It was skimpy and flashy.

"Fine." Edward sighed. "I'll go see what I can find. I'll be back in a little while." And he kissed me on the forehead.

"Thanks guys." I said.

"Don't mention it." Said Alice. Rosalie didn't reply. We hung around my house for a little while, waiting for Edward to return. Charlie was out patrolling the streets because it was Halloween and the town didn't exactly trust teenagers.

Then, the doorknob turned and Edward walked in. He was wearing a white button down shirt that was unbuttoned all the way, revealing his pearly white chest. He also had on baggy blue jeans and no shoes.

"Happy?" he asked, stepping in the door.

"Yes." I replied, very excited at the sight of his bare chest. "Very."

"Good. Then lets go." Rosalie cut in. "We're already late." She was already in the front drivers seat of her convertible. Alice climbed in beside her and Edward and I took the back. Rosalie drove faster than Edward and, therefore, had us there in record time.

"Where are Emmett and Jasper?" I asked.

"They're waiting for us." Said Rosalie angrily. Edward mumbled something under his breath and Rosalie got out of the car and marched over to Edward's car, where Emmett and Jasper were waiting. They got out to greet us. Emmett was dressed as a pirate to match Rosalie and Jasper was the classic vampire, yet modernized a little.

"Hi Bella." Said Emmett when Edward and I got closer. "You look real pretty." Rosalie growled. "But not as pretty as Rosalie." He clarified quickly.

"Shall we go inside?" asked Jasper. "I believe the party has started without us."

"No party has officially started until we have arrived, Jas." Said Alice, using her pet name for him.

"You're right. How silly of me to have thought otherwise." Jasper replied, starring Alice deeply in the eyes.

"Hello!" said Rosalie very loudly. "Can we go inside yet?"

"Yes, let's go." Said Jasper, never taking his eyes off Alice. Inside, about half the population of Forks High School was dancing and talking and eating refreshments.

"Hey Bella." Said Mike, coming over to me and ignoring the rest of the Cullens. He had never forgiven Edward for taking away his chances with me "Glad to see you made it."

"Yeah, I wouldn't miss it." I said, and gave Edward a squeeze around the middle.

"Hi Edward." Mike replied gloomily. "I'd better go and find Jessica."

"Bye." I said and he walked away.

"He really doesn't like me." Edward said once Mike was out of earshot.

"Yes." I agreed. "But be nice anyway." We walked over to the refreshment table and I grabbed a cookie that looked like a decapitated finger, with a nut for a fingernail. Then we went to go and dance for a little while.

"Jessica needs some help in the kitchen." Edward said as we glided around the floor to a dead waltz.

"I'd better go help her than." I said and reluctantly let go of him and headed for the kitchen. I closed the door to the kitchen behind me and found Jessica leaning over a cutting board chopping up some cheese for the guests.

"Can I help?" I asked her and she straightened up quickly; she hadn't noticed I was there.

"Sure Bella. Thanks a lot." She said and instructed me to finish slicing the cheese slices. She went over to the fridge and pulled out a number of soda's and disappeared out the kitchen door, it closing behind her. I continued to slice the cheese. But one stoke of the knife got too close to my fingers and made a nice clean cut on my finger.

"Shoot!" I yelped, clutching my finger as blood dripped down my arm. I spun around looking for something to stop the blood flow. Then, Jessica came back in the room.

"Bella!" she gasped. "What happened?"

"I got the knife a little too close to my finger." I replied. And then there was a loud scream from the other room. "What as that?"

"Someone probably knocked over something glass." Jessica replied, quickly grabbing a towel out of a drawer. She dabbed all the blood off my hand and held my finger firmly in the towel.

"I'll go upstairs and get some bandage. It looks like you might need some stitched though." Jessica said, allowing me to hold the cloth and heading for the stairs.

I sighed and looked down at the blood stained towel. "Just what I need. More stitches." And then I noticed something else. There was blood on the front of my costume, and lots of it.

"I can't go back to Edward like this. It will drive him half insane to sit in the same car with me, I'll have to borrow something from Jess." Right on cue, Jessica came back down stairs with a wad of bandage.

"Here you go." She said and pulled the towel away from, reveling a deep cut in the side of my finger. She rinsed it out once under the faucet and then bound it with bandage.

"Hey Jess. Can I borrow a pair of cloths?" I asked, as she finished wrapping my wound.

"Why?" she asked.

"Cause the ones I'm wearing right now have blood all over them, and you know how I am with blood."

"Good point." She agreed. "I'll go and get you something."

"I'll come with." I said and followed her up the stairs. In her room, she pulled out a pair of jeans and an orange t-shirt with a bat on it.

"Thanks." I said.

"No problem." She said and went back downstairs to the party. I pulled the new cloths on and wrapped my costume in a plastic bag, and then returned to the party as well.

I looked around the room, but couldn't find Edward. . . or any of the Cullens. I looked out the front window and saw that Rosalie's convertible was gone! Scared, I went outside and saw, with relief, that Edward was waiting for me by his car.

"What happened?" I asked.

"We could smell your blood from the kitchen and Jasper almost lost control and had to leave." He replied solemnly.

"Is that what the scream I heard was about?"

"Yes. Emmett and I had to drag him out. Though he did his best to make it look like an allergic reaction to food. We convinced everyone that we had to take him to the hospital."

"I'm so sorry." I said.

"It's not your fault that you are clumsy, though I am beginning to wonder what you were doing with a knife in the first place."

"I was helping Jessica." I admitted. "Though I was kind of spacing out." He didn't say anything, but just shook his head and softly chuckled to himself.

"Come on Bella, lets get you home." He said and opened the car door for me. I got in and prepared for the ride home.

When we were in front of my house, I turned to him and said, "Thank you for talking me, even if it did turn out badly."

"It's alright. Alice didn't even see that happen. No one could have predicted it."

"Alice checked to see if anything would happen?" I asked

"Rosalie made her." He replied.

"Oh." I said and gave him a big hug. "Tell everyone else I'm sorry."

"I will." He said and I got out of the car and went in the house.


	3. The Race

The Race

"What?" I yelled across the line to Alice. "You lost Bella!"

"Technically she ran away." She replied calmly.

"How could you let her? How could a human girl out smart two vampires? How did she. . .?"

"Jasper escorted her to the bathroom and she snuck out a back door. We tried to follow her, but she got in a taxi before we could get her." I didn't say anything more; just sat in disbelief.

"We have to find her." I finally said. "James has probably got something to do with this. We had better hurry."

"Where are you?" she asked. "How long will it take you to get here?"

"We're on the plane right now." I replied. "We'll be there in an hour."

"Be careful." Alice commanded. I didn't reply, but just hung up. _I'm not going to promise things I can't guarantee. _

Jasper and Alice were waiting for us at the flight gate. We rushed out of the airport as fast as we could, just as Alice was pulling up in a stolen car. She moved over and I got in the drivers seat, while everyone else climbed in the back. If it had been different circumstances, I would have enjoyed the car a lot. It was very fast and sporty.

"Where is Renee's house?" I demanded as soon as we were on the main road. Alice directed me as best as she could and we headed toward the house. I squealed to a halt out front and got out so fast I didn't even bother to turn the car off.

The house was empty. I didn't know where to go next. Alice had been having visions of a place no one could identify, but that was where Bella was.

"Do you know where the place from your visions is?" I asked her desperately, knowing the answer already. If she had figured any thing else out, she would have told me.

"No." she replied sadly. We got back in the car and drove around the block, just in case. That is when I heard him, or his thoughts anyway. He was thinking about how he was going to do it. How he was going to. . .

No! I wouldn't let him! I had to find him. I looked around for a place that he could be. All I saw was houses.

When I turned the corner though, I saw it. A ballet school! I floored the car and stopped as fast as I could in the parking lot. Everyone got out before the car had completely stopped. Emmett w3as the first one in, but stopped dead in his tracks when the smell of blood hit his nostrils. I went around him and pulled James away from Bell, throwing him hardly into the side of the wall. He hit it and I heard the snap of bones, but didn't care. All that mattered to me was Bella. I knelt down next to her, but she was unconscious. Her head was bleeding profusely. Emmett went over to James, picked him up, and hauled him out of the building.

"What do you want them to do with James?" Alice asked, as Carlisle came to my side.

"Get rid of him. Make him feel some of the pain that I feel, that Bella feels."

"Right." And she went to tell Jasper.

"Oh no, Bella, no!" I pleaded. "Bella, please! Bella, listen to me, please, please, Bella please!"

"Carlisle." I called, and then turned back to Bella. "Bella, Bella, no, oh please, no, no!" Carlisle came and checked her over, touching different parts of her body to see if she was injured.

"Bella!" I called once more.

"She's lost some blood, but the head wound isn't deep." He concluded. "Watch out for her leg, it's broken."

I snarled in rage toward James, wishing I were outside torturing him right now, but not even considering leaving Bella's side.

"Some ribs too, I think." He continued.

"Edward." The word escaped her lips very weakly and softly.

"Bella, you're going to be fine. Bella, can you hear me? I love you." I tried to comfort her.

"Edward." She whispered again.

"Yes, I'm here." I replied desperately.

"It hurts." She whimpered.

"I know, Bella, I know." I said, then pleaded to Carlisle. "Can't you do anything?"

"My bag please. . . hold your breath, Alice, it will help." He ordered. Alice quickly went to go and get his medical bag and returned just as fast.

"Alice?" Bella groaned.

"Yes, she's here." I said.

"It hurts." She whimpered.

"I know Bella. Carlisle will give you something, it will stop." I reassured her.

"My hand is burning!" she suddenly screamed, as if she were coming out of a trance and finally realizing what was happening. "The fire! Someone stop the fire!"

I searched her hands, hoping to find what she was talking about.

"Carlisle!" I gasped. "Her hand!"

"He bit her." He confirmed, appalled.

"Edward, you have to do it." Alice said, crouching on my other side of me.

"No!" I bellowed.

"Alice." Bella moaned.

"There may be a chance." Carlisle prompted.

"What?" I gasped.

"See if you can suck the venom back out. The wound is fairly clean." As he spoke, he started to bandage her head.

"Will that work?" Alice asked.

"I don't know." Carlisle replied. "But we have to hurry."

"Carlisle I. . . I don't know if I can do that." I stammered.

"It's your decision." He said and continued to treat her as she continued to scream in agony. I picked up her hand and brought it closer to me. Then, I started sucking the venom out. Her blood was better than any I had ever tasted before; sweater, more addicting. She screamed and thrashed, as I took more and more of her blood and, hopefully, the venom with it. Then, slowly, she calmed.

She called to me again. "Is the fire gone?" I asked.

"Mmmhmm." She replied. "Thank you." And she started to slip into unconsciousness again.

"I love you." I said. "Now sleep." And she drifted completely.

"This won't hold her for long, but it will do until we get her to the hospital." Carlisle said. "Alice, you had better go and make a believable scene; a reason for all of this to have happened."

"Okay." She replied and left. Meanwhile, Carlisle and I started carrying her to the hotel. Emmett and Jasper came around the corner of the building then.

"Is he gone?" I asked, rage coming back to me in large amounts.

"Yes." Jasper replied. "Carlisle, what should we do about the building?"

"Burn it." He replied and they went right on it.


	4. A Bonding Experience Part 1

A Bonding Experience

(Part 1)

It was a month after my ordeal with James, and Edward was taking me to some unknown place and 8:00 in the morning on a Saturday. (What else is new?) Only, it wasn't a surprise place.

I figured this out when he turned up the gravel road that was his driveway.

"Your house, nice surprise." I said. "For once it isn't a surprise."

"No, there will definitely be a surprise. We just need to go here first." He replied, smirking. He stopped the car in front of the house and was at my door to help me out in a second.

"So what's _really _going on?" I asked him once I was stabile on my one good foot.

"Someone wants to have a. . . bonding day with you." He said.

"Who?" I asked.

"You'll find out inside." He said and firmly ushered me toward the house. I wasn't going to have a choice.

"Bella!" squealed Emmett as we came in the door. "Aren't you so excited for our date?"

"Our what?" I asked, alarmed.

"You didn't tell her?" he asked Edward, offended.

"I was letting it be a surprise." He replied.

"Well, surprise!" Emmett yelled. "We are going to have lots of fun. Good-bye Edward." And he shooed him away. Edward mumbled something inaudible and Emmett gave him an angry look and then mumbled something back. Then, Edward left.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked him.

"I have lots of ideas. We probably won't get to them all, especially with your leg." He replied. "We had better get started." He escorted me out the back door, where his jeep sat, ready for a ride. It had only been about a month since I'd last ridden in it. Yet in this time, I had forgotten how massive it was.

"Err, do you need some help getting in?" he asked.

"Yes." I admitted pathetically.

"That's going to take too long." He stated. "Why don't we take Rosalie's car?"

"Will she mind?" I asked, afraid to touch anything at belonged to Rosalie Lillian Hale.

"Naw, Rose won't mind. I drive her car all the time." And he went to the garage in the back to get her convertible. He drove it up, I was amazed at how inhumanly sparkly clean it was.

I got in and asked, "You polish her car a lot, don't you?"

"No." he replied. "Rosalie does it herself. She loves doing anything with cars, even cleaning them."

"Wow." I said. "I didn't know that."

"Not many people do. She doesn't want them to." He said. "But Rosalie isn't what today is all about."

"Right." I confirmed. "So, what are we going to do?"

"I thought we might go sailing." He said. "In the ocean."

"Sounds like fun." I said. He drove to Port Angles and we got on a boat.

"Not that I know to much about boats, but this seems like a really expensive one. Whose is it?" I said as Emmett sailed farther away from the shore.

"Carlisle bought it about a year ago." He replied. "This ought to be far enough."

"Far enough for what?" I asked, alarmed. He didn't reply; just pulled his shirt off over his head, took his socks and shoes off, and dived in the ocean.


	5. A Bonding Experience Part 2

A Bonding Experience

(Part 2)

I starred after him in fright. Had he really just taken his shirt off and jumped in the ocean? What if the sun came out? What if a boat came by as he was surfacing while the sun was out? What if he didn't surface at all and just left me here? How well do I really know Emmett? And then he surfaced. And the sun wasn't out.

"Come on in." he called to me. "It's very refreshing."

"As much as I would like to, my leg, remember." I answered.

"Yes, that does pose a problem." He agreed. "Hold on, I'll be right back." And he dove back under again. I sat twiddling my thumbs, keeping an eye out for him as those same thoughts came back into my head.

What if a shark ate him? Could he survive that? Or what if an octopus got a hold of him? But then, again, he surfaced and he climbed back in the boat, something in his hand.

"Here." He said, thrusting the object toward me. "I got this for you." It was an oyster. I starred at it, confused.

"Open it." He insisted. I grabbed it from his hand and tried to open it. I couldn't.

"Umm." I started.

"Oh right." He said, remembering I wasn't as strong as he was. He easily pried the shells of the oyster apart to reveal a huge pink pearl!

I gasped. "Oh Emmett, it's beautiful."

"When we get back, we could have it made into a necklace." He suggested.

"That would be wonderful. Thank you." And I gave him a huge hug around his wet chest.

He laughed his bearish laugh. "Your welcome. Rosalie's never done that." I giggled too. "So, what would you like to do now?"

"I don't know. I thought you had the whole day planned out."

"I do. But thought I'd ask anyway, incase there was something you'd like to do that I haven't thought of. But I guess there isn't so, we're going back to land." And he started turning the boat around. It was very interesting, watching him steer it and he knew what else to do and exactly when to do it.

When we were safely back on land and the sailboat was securely tied up to the dock, we got back in the corvette.

"So, has Edward ever brought you out here?" he asked.

"No. I had no idea you guys new how to sail." I replied.

"That doesn't surprise me. Edward hates water. It's like some weird phobia of his."

"I didn't know vampires had phobias." I said.

"Yeah, most do. Like, Jasper's afraid of soda, the fizz freaks him out. He says when he was alive, it would've been considered witch craft."

"And Esme was afraid of our toaster for the first year we had it. She finally got so sick of the toast scaring her every time it came out, she started timing it to find out how long it takes it to heat."

I laughed. "So, what are you afraid of, Emmett Cullen?"

"I said _most_ vampires were afraid of something. I'm not afraid of anything."

"I see." I replied, determined to ask Edward about this later. "So where are you taking me now?"

"You will see when we get there." He replied. "But until then, feel free to turn on the radio and please, not that crap that my brother listens to."

"You don't like classical music? But Edward plays it at home all the time, doesn't he?"

"Yes. That's bearable only because he is playing it. Otherwise, it's terrible."

"Alright. That's not the only kind of music I like." And I found my favorite rock station. We sat and listened to the radio for a while. I must have picked his favorite music, because he seamed to know every word to all the songs.

When we finally stopped, it was in front of a building with a lit up piece of pizza sign and lit words that said the name of a restaurant.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Your stomach has been rumbling for the last hour; I thought you might be hungry. Besides, this is the best pizza joint in Washington, so I've been told."

"Sounds good to me." I replied, embarrassed about my bodily functions. "I love pizza." We went inside and sat down at a table.

"Stay here." He instructed me. "I'll get you something good." And he went up to the counter to order a pizza. He returned a minute later with a plastic number and set at the edge of the table, as he sat down across from me.

"So, what have you thought of our day so far?" he asked.

"It's been awesome." I replied enthusiastically. "That was the first time I'd been on a boat in my life."

"Wow. A couple hours and I've already done something the great Edward Cullen hasn't." he said, smirking. "But onto better topics. Tell me something about yourself I don't know."

"Hmm." I thought for a minute. "Well, I was born in Forks, but left with my mom when I was only six months old."

"Where did you go to?" he inquired.

"California. We lived there for a while and then moved to Arizona. My mom likes warm weather."

"I see." He said. "I think I would live in it too if I were able to."

"Now tell me some stuff about you." I said as the pizza came to our table. It was huge and covered in tons of different toppings I would never have put on a pizza. Pickles, cucumber, and what I think was a peach, to name a few. And of course there was the usual-got-to-haves: pepperoni, green olives, and sun dried tomatoes, but no mushrooms, just the way I like it.

"How did you know the way I like my pizza?" I asked him before he could answer my first question.

"I guessed and then added a couple things I thought were different." He replied calmly. "And about your first question. I was born in Tennessee and, as you know, was being mauled by a bear when Rose found me."

"Had you ever met Rosalie before she saved you?" I quizzed.

"No." he said. "But I had seen her a couple times in my town. On cloudy days of course." He added.

"How old were you when Rosalie saved you?"

"Twenty." He replied.

"And what were you ding in the middle of bear infested woods?"

"Hunting." He replied chipperly. "My father was away and my mother needed some meat for dinner, so I went out hinting."

"How many times have you and Rosalie gotten married?" I asked, taking a large bite out of my steaming hot pizza.

"I stopped counting after seven. But it has been more than that. Rosalie likes it when people pay attention to her and what better way for people to do that than at a wedding? And sometimes afterward, if Carlisle and Esme are still living in the same place, we will live away from the others, sometimes in different states or countries."

"Interesting." I said, taking my second piece of pizza out of the pan.

"How does that taste?" he asked, all of a sudden turning very serious.

"Really good." I replied. "What's wrong?"

"I'll be right back." He said and got up and went out the door. I watched him out the window. He was going towards Rosalie's car, where some guys were standing, doing something. Once they saw Emmett coming at them, they ran away to reveal large, thick, spray paint lines all over the sides and seats. Emmett went after them and caught one of them by the back of the shirt, punching him hardly in the nose and sending him flying. The others stopped to watch their friend get beat up by the huge burly guy, then took off running them again. Emmett came back in after checking over the car carefully.

"Rosalie is going to kill me when she sees the car." He said, sitting back down in his seat. I didn't know what to say.

"We could leave now and see if we could find someone to fix it before we go home." I suggested.

"No!" he said loudly. "She'd kill me worse if she found out I let someone else work on her car. She still gets agree when she thinks about it being in someone else's possession at one time."

"Who's?" I asked.

"The dealer she bought it from." He replied, smirking to himself. "It's alright. I'll tell her what happened and maybe she won't bite my head off."

I smiled as best as I could, secretly thinking about what she might do to me when she found out I had been inside of it.

"Are you finished?" he asked, when he realized I had stopped eating.

"Yes." I replied, turning my attention back to him and away from my thoughts of the twenty different ways Rosalie would find to torture me.

"I thought we might catch a movie now." He said.

"Okay." I happily replied. "Which one?"

"You're asking me?" he asked, amazed. "I've always been told which one we were going to see. Hmm, well, there's a new movie I'd like to see."

"Which one?" I wondered.

"It's got lots of fast cars." He optimistically tried.

"Okay." I said. "Sounds like a Cullen movie. So, we got into Rosalie's newly painted car, me having to climb in the back to avoid sitting in wet paint.

When the movie was done, we got back into the car and discussed the movie. It was pretty much a mixture of _Charlie's Angles _and _The Fast and the Furious_ movies. But, it was good, definitely not something I would've seen with Jessica.

"Should we go home?" he asked, as we drove out of Port Angles. It was now about 4:00.

"Sure. I am getting tired." I admitted. When we pulled up the Cullen's driveway, there was someone standing in the middle of the road. As we got closer, I realized who it was. Rosalie. She stood with her hands on her hips and when she saw what had happened to her once spotless car, I thought she was going to pass out. Emmett stopped the car in front of her.

"Bella, go in the house by Edward." He commanded. I nimbly got out and hobbled toward the door, hearing lots of screaming and loud bangs behind me.

"How was your day with Emmett?" Edward asked when I joined him in the front room. He was sitting at his piano.

"It was awesome. Though I think my day is going to end a lot better than his."

"He was asking for it the second he even thought about taking Rosalie's car without asking. She treats that thing like it's a gift given to her personally by God."

"I suppose I had better get you home. Charlie is probably wondering where you are." He continued after minute of us listening to the noises outside.

"Yes." I said and started limping toward the door.

Outside, Emmett lay sprawled on his back on the ground; dirt everywhere on is pearly white skin. Rosalie's car was no where to be seen, but there was a light on in the back where I assumed the garage was.

"Good bye Bella." He said weakly as we walked by.

"Good bye Emmett." I said and knelt down beside him and gave him a kiss on the cheek, then followed Edward to his car to take me home.


	6. More Bonding Part 1

**_Note: I am sorry it has taken me longer than usual to update. This is a longer post (for me!) and I've been VERY busy!_**

**_Note2: not all the info in here is true. (or to the best of my knowledge) some of it I made up off the top of myhead, but not all of it. No, there were a couple hundred tripps to twilightlexicon for info. _**

**_(Thanks Guys!!!) _**

More Bonding

(Part 1)

It was another boring day at home. Edward had been hunting with Emmett, Alice, and Esme for two days and I had sat at home the whole time and done nothing. I was just feeling ambitious enough to get up and get something to eat, when the doorbell rang. I slowly went for the knob and when I opened it, was surprised to find Jasper!

"Hello, Bella." He greeted me. "What's up?" I surprised me how casual he was acting because we hardly new each other, but it seemed that way with all the Cullens, they new me even if we weren't close.

"Nothing much." I replied when I had composed myself. "Come in." and he gracefully strolled inside. He followed me into the kitchen and where ever else I went.

"Can I help you with something Jasper?" I asked, after this had carried on for twenty minutes.

"Yes." He replied cautiously. "Um, before Edward left, he suggested that I maybe come and spend a day with you or something. Keep you company were his words I believe. So I came to see what you were doing."

"Oh. Well, nothing too exciting is going on here." I said.

"No. But it's better than what's going on at my house. Carlisle is at work and all Rosalie does is stare at herself in the mirror or find someway to make herself look even better. It is very annoying."

"I know how the feeling is." I said.

"So, would you like to do something?" he finally asked. "It's not too late, we could do something and then go to dinner?"

"Sounds great." I happily chirped. I was so happy to finally be getting some quality time in with one of the other Cullens. It seemed like the more of them I got to know, the more I understood them.

So, I quickly wrote Charlie a note, telling him I would be back after supper, changed out of my sweatpants and puts some real cloths on, and went back downstairs to meet Jasper. He was waiting outside by my truck.

"Don't you have a car?" I jokingly asked him.

"Yes. But I was wondering what it would be like to be in a non-sports-car vehicle for a change. So, I thought we'd take your truck, if it were not too much trouble. If you want, I could drive."

"No, that's fine." I said. "And if you really want to, you can drive." He smiled sweetly at me, and got in the drivers door of the truck, as I got in the other.

"What did you have in mind to do?" I asked him, as he got on a main road, obviously having somewhere in mind.

"How do you do with animals?" he asked.

"Quite well, actually. I can't think of a time something has gone wrong with one." I replied, interested now.

"Good. I thought we might try horse riding. It doesn't sound like anyone has taken you to do that yet."

"No, they haven't. But where is there a place to go horse riding?"

"On the beach a little west of Port Angles. It is very peaceful there."

"I do have to worn you Jasper, I have never been on a horse before, and I'm sure you've heard about my coordination."

"Don't worry Bella. The worst I can do to you is kill you and Edward is going to do that eventually. If anything I wills speed up the process." He chuckled to himself. "But you don't have to think about that. I promised Edward I would be careful with you." All I could think to do was smile sweetly.

We road in silence the rest of the way there. The quietest ride to Port Angles I had ever been on.

When he stopped at the barn, I was awestruck. It was huge! And there were horses everywhere! He got out and I followed. We went into one of the smaller buildings on the premises, where a tall man about the age of Charlie was.

"Well hello Emmett." He said, tipping his cowboy hat to Jasper.

"I'm Jasper, Dal." He corrected.

"Aw, I can't tell the difference. There's too many of ya." He replied.

"Yes, but if you start getting too careless, you might call Rosalie Carlisle and then we'd really have a mess on our hands."

" True. Maybe I should be a little more careful." And then he noticed me. "And who's this you've got with you, Esme?"

"No. This is Edward's girlfriend, Bella. You haven't met before."

He squinted his eyes to get a better look at me and then continued, "Since when does Edward have a girlfriend?"

"They've been together for a couple of months."

"Hmm." He thought for a minute. "Yeah, it's been about that long since he's been out here, hasn't it."

"Yes. We've all been quite busy."

"Haven't we all?" he asked. "Well, what can I do for ya?"

"Bella and I would like to go for a ride, if you don't mind." He replied.

"Sure, go ahead. You know where everything is."

"Thanks Dal." And Jasper ushered me out the door.

When we were outside, I looked at him questioningly. "Who was that?"

"Oh, that's Dal. He owns this ranch and has been a friend of Carlisle's since we moved here. His great-grandfather was also friends with Carlisle, back when they lived here a while ago." Jasper walked into a room that was attached to one of the larger barns and grabbed two halters.

"Here." He said, handing me a powder blue one. I looked at the metal piece that was screwed onto it. It was a nameplate and _Ranger_ was engraved in it. "He'll be a good one for you." And he walked back out.

I followed him like a shadow. He walked past all the fields. Some had only a few horses, while others had more than I could count at a glance. But the one he stopped in front of was completely empty. I was about to point this out when he put his hand up in my face and whistled, quite loudly. Nothing happened.

"Umm, Jasper, maybe-" I started but stopped when two huge creatures came galloping over a hill. They were ten yards in front of us and were still galloping. Then, right as they were about to run into the fence, they skidded to a stop, dust flying in our faces and beside me, Japer was laughing.

"Wow!" I said and starred through the dust storm at the two animals in front of us.

"This is Ranger." Jasper said, and patted the head of a pitch back gelding. "And this is Matrix." This horse was taller than Ranger and younger looking. He white with black and brown spots all over his body.

"They're really. . . big." I gulped. "Bigger than I'd expected."

He laughed. "Come on." And he bent over and squeezed through the slits in the fence. I followed. Inside the fence, he effortlessly slipped the halter on Matrix's head. I looked at the halter, twisted it around, but couldn't figure out how to get it on.

"Do you need some help?" He asked.

"That would be nice." I replied. He handed me Matrix's lead rope and took Ranger's halter from me. Then, he held it up in front of me and explained to me how to put it on, and then slowly showed me. When he was finished, he took back his horse and handed me mine.

"This way." He said and started leading the horse toward a gate at the other end of the fence line. He opened it pulled the horse through and waited for me to do the same before he closed it again. We went inside one of he larger barns where I learned what a crosstie was and how to hook a one up to a halter. Then, he disappeared into a room full of saddles and other tack and resurfaced with two blue plastic boxes full of brushes, combs and some other objects I couldn't identify.

"Start grooming with this brush." He instructed and handed me a hard brush. I started pulling it across the horses belly and then across his rump but stopped when I heard Jasper snickering across the isle.

"Here, let me help you." He said and came and stood behind me. He put his hand on top of mine, his cold touch so much like Edward's, and pulled my hand across the horse the correct way. "You have to follow the pattern of his hair. If you go against it, you can put even more dust into his coat." Then he was finished and went back to grooming Matrix.

I continued grooming, combing Ranger's mane and tail with a large toothed comb. But when it came to picking his feet, Jasper had to help.

"Alright." He remarked after he stood upright again and admired our work. "I think we're ready to get on. I'll go and get the saddles and stuff." And he walked back to the room he had gotten the brush boxes. I ran and picked the boxes up and followed him.

"Put those there." He said and pointed toward a shelf where at least ten other boxes sat. "Then come here and grab these bridles." I came over to him and he handed me the leather pieces that would go on the horses' heads. He carried both saddles and the blankets.

When we were back in the hallway, he set his saddle on a rack that extended out of a stall door and brought mine over to me. "Put the blanket on first." He instructed, handing it to me. I threw it on the horses back. "Good. Now make sure it is centered. If it's not, the saddle could slip sideways."

"That would be a bad thing." I remarked. "Especially with me on board." He nodded in agreement.

"Okay, what's next?" I asked.

"Next goes the saddle." He said. "It's kind of heavy, be careful." And he handed me a saddle. I later found out that it was called a western saddle. It was all leather and had something called a horn.

I tried my best to throw it onto the horses back. It must have weighed 60lbs. Finally, I tried sliding it up his side and ended up pushing the blanket off Ranger's back.

"Err!" I yelled in frustration. "Jasper, can you help me?"

"Of course." He chimed and came over to help me. First, he put the blanket back on and then effortlessly threw the saddle onto Ranger's back. Then, he cinched up the girth and we were ready to go.

"Wait." He said. "We need to put the bridle on."

"I think I'll watch this too." I said and observed as he placed his arm under the horses chin and pulled the bit into his mouth, the pulled the strap over his ears and latched the throatlatch.

"Okay, now we're ready to go." He went over to Matrix and undid the crossties, pulled the rains over his head and led him out of the barn. I did the same as best as I could. But by the time I got outside, he was already on.

"Umm, how do I get on?" I asked.

"Follow me." He said and steered Matrix over to a stool. "Stop him and put the stool next to the saddle." I did. "Now get on the stool and put your left foot in the stirrup." Did that too. "Now swing your right leg over his rump and you'll be in the saddle." I hopped a couple times to build up my momentum and then swung my leg. I landed on the other side of the horse; my butt was in the saddle. "Good job." Jasper said cheerfully. "Now come on. I've got to teach you the basics."

"Now, to get him to walk, tap him on the sides a couple times." I did as he said and Ranger started to walk. "Good, now to stop him, pull back on both the rains and say 'hoe'" I did this too and he stopped! "That's all you need to know for now, so lets get going."

"Where exactly are we going to ride?" I asked.

"In the woods." He replied. "There are trails in them that we can go on. Come on." He told Matrix to walk and I did the same to Ranger. We went into the woods. The trail was beautiful! There were birds chirping and squirrels running up and down trees.

"This is awesome!" I said and looked around me in all directions.

"Yes." Jasper replied and smiled. "Should we go a little faster?"

"How much faster?" I asked.

"Just a little." He replied.

"I guess." I said.

"Okay, so you remember how you made him walk. Well now you are going to do that same thing and click at the same time, okay?"

"Can you show me first?" I asked him.

"I suppose." He replied. He tapped his horse's sides and clicked several times and the horse began to trot. It wasn't too much faster, it even looked a little fun. So, I did as he had instructed and Ranger began to trot too.

I followed behind him for a while at this speed; until he stopped to give the horse a break.

"How was it?" he asked as I pulled up beside him, now at a walk.

"Really fun!" I said and smiled big.

"Do should we go even faster now?" he asked.

"Am I going to fall off?" I asked.

"Maybe." He admitted. "But if you do, I'll catch you before you even hit the ground." I thought about this for a minute.

"Sure." I finally said, waiting for instructions.

"Alright. So when you are trotting, give him a kick in the right side and kiss at him."

"Kiss at him?" I laughed.

"Yes. It will tell him to canter." He replied.

"Okay." I said and waited for him to lead. He told Matrix to trot- I told Ranger- and then he kicked him in the side and made a kissing sound. The horse immediately took off in a canter and before I could stop myself, I did the same.

It was so much faster than a trot, but smoother and once I got into the rhythm of it, it was amazing! I felt like I was flying! I think I might've even been laughing.

We raced up a hill and when we got to the top, Jasper pulled Matrix to a halt.

"When did you learn to ride?" asked him as we walked down the hill.

"When I was a Major in the Confederate army in the 1860's." he said. "I didn't do much riding until a couple years ago, when we found this place."

"You were in the army?" I asked.

"Yes. I was changed during the war and became part of a family of vampires that fed on humans. That is why I sometimes have trouble around you or other humans." He said guiltily.

"Oh." I replied and tried to think of something else to talk about. "So, where are we?"

"This is the place where I first met Alice." He said. "She was hunting and I was trying to get away from the family that changed me. I followed their way of life for many years, but as time went by, I became more and more depressed about their. . . diet, and decided to leave. They didn't like that and so they came after me. That is when I found Alice. It is a dangerous thing for a vampire to come into a territory where another vampire is hunting, but she was my only hope. When I found her, she was very calm, as if she had been expecting me, and beckoned me to her. When my family finally caught up with me, they took me for a dead man to go into another vampire's hunting grounds and abandoned their chase. So, in two ways Alice saved me."

"What two?" I asked, confused.

"First, she kept my family from killing me and two, she saved me from becoming a monster, especially when she found Carlisle."

"Oh." I said and we starred at the field that lay before us for a little while.

"Shall we go back?" he asked as I began to fully understand what this place meant to him.

"Yes." I said and turned Ranger around toward the barn.

We walked most of the way back, only trotting or cantering when we got to a flat spot and when we did get back, Jasper had to show me how to take everything off. Then, we went outside and picked some apples off a tree and fed them to the horses.

By this time, it was already 6:00. Jasper went in the house that was in the property to say goodbye to Dal; then we got back in my car and headed toward Port Angles.

"Where would you like to go to dinner?" he asked as we drove through the main part of the city.

"You chose." I said.

"Alright." He replied.

And where did we end up? The Italian restaurant that Edward had taken me to when he had saved me.

"Is this okay?" he asked when he parked and I just sat there and starred out the window, remembering all that had happened there.

"Yeah." I said. "I love this place." We went in and got seated in at a table I the back, where Edward an d I had sat. And of course the same waitress was there to take our order.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" she asked, her eyes glued to Jasper.

"Ask her." He said, and directed the waitress's attention to me as best as he could.

She looked at, waiting for my answer. "Two cokes." I said and then remembered what Emmett had said about Jasper and soda. "Umm, actually, make those iced teas."

"Why did you change your mind?" he asked after the waitress had walked away to get our drinks.

"Umm, I just remembered something . . . and decided I wanted iced tea instead."

"Did Emmett tell you I was afraid of soda? That the fizz creped me out?"

"How did you guess?" I asked, embarrassed.

"I know Emmett very well." He replied. "And if their's one piece of advice I can give you, it's ignore 100 percent of the words that come out of that idiots mouth. He's an incompetent imbecile and one of the _worst _liars in the world."

"Umm, okay." I said and the waitress brought our drinks.

"What can I get you to drink . . . I mean eat?" she said nervously, starring a hole in Jasper again.

Jasper simply pointed at me. I rambled out the first thing I saw on the menu and she went away again.

"So what else did Emmett tell you?"

"That Esme is afraid of toasters and Edward is afraid of the water." I replied, really embarrassed that I had believed him.

"Blasphemy." He said. "Once Edward raced Emmett across the Atlantic Ocean and beat him."

I laughed at the thought of Edward and Emmett swimming. I'd have to ask Edward to take me swimming sometime. "And as far as Esme goes, I believe she knew the person that invented the toaster."

"Wow."

When my food came, we went onto other subjects like what had happened in between him changing and finding Alice. And my childhood and what compelled me to come to Forks after years of not.

"I suppose I should take you home." He said when we were the last people in the place. "You dad is probably bald with worry."

I giggled. "So. It's not like Edward and I have never made him worry before."

"All the same, I think we should go back."

"Alright." And we got back in my truck. I must have fallen asleep ten minutes after we left because the last thing I remember seeing is the bright lights of a boat in the water.

"Bella. Bella, wake up." Jasper shook me. I opened my eyes and found that we were parked outside my house. "Did you know that you talk in your sleep?"

"Yes, I've been told that. Are we back already?"

"Already? It's 11:30." He said. "Here, let me help you in the house. Your only half awake and heaven forbid I keep you safe all day and then when I let you go in your house, you fall asleep halfway up the stairs and really fall out a window."

"I wouldn't do that." I said sleepily, yawning loudly. "Okay, maybe I could use a little help." He picked me up and carried me like a baby. I can't imagine how hard it was for him. Not physically, though I am heavy, but mentally. How hard it was for him to resist. But, nonetheless, I made up to my bed safely.

"Goodnight." Jasper said and kissed me softly on the forehead. And then he was gone.


	7. More Bonding Part 2

More Bonding

(Part 2)

It was Saturday and Edward was _still_ hunting. This was getting ridiculous! It shouldn't have taken him four day to go hunting. But, I was keeping busy, my day with Jasper and my new job at Newton's Outfitters. But nonetheless, it wasn't the same without him. It never would be.

"So what are you going to do today?" Charlie asked when I came down for breakfast. He was going fishing with Billy and a couple other guys, I couldn't remember exactly who.

"I'll probably just hang around here." I replied, pouring myself a bowl of cereal.

"What about Edward? Aren't you going to see him?"

"No dad, I told you. Edward went to visit some relatives out of state for a couple days."

"Oh, right. I forgot." He said, not really caring. "Well, I'll be back tonight sometime. You could make yourself dinner if you want. Billy and I are going to cook some of the catch for dinner. You're welcome to come if you want. Jake will be there."

"No thanks dad." I said. "Maybe I'll call Jessica Stanley and see if she wants to do something." That was a lie. I hadn't done anything with Jessica since the time we went to the Quileute Reservation.

"Suit yourself." He said and grabbed his coat and got in the cruiser to go to Billy's house.

After he left, I milled around the house for a while, straightening up anything I could find. Then, the phone rang.

"Hello?" I said into the receiver.

"Hi." Said a woman's voice on the other side. "Bella, I'm coming over, okay."

"Wait, who is this?" I asked.

"Who does it sound like?" said the voice hotly.

I thought for a moment. "Rosalie?" I asked.

"Good job." She said. "Now you'd better be ready when I get there."

"What's going on?" I asked, afraid that something might have happened to Edward.

"Before my brother left, he said I should spend some time getting to know you, so I am. I want to see what's so great about you. Why everyone likes you so much."

"Alright. Well, I'll be ready in ten minutes." I said slowly, looking at my pajamas and messy hair. I had just gotten out of bed when I had gone downstairs to say goodbye to Charlie.

"I'll be there." She said. "And you had better be ready for a long day."

I gulped. "All right, b-" but she hung up before I could finish.

I quickly went upstairs to my room and threw on a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt. Then, I brushed through my hair and went back downstairs to wait for Rosalie. She was already outside waiting for me though, in Emmett's Jeep.

"I thought because Emmett took my car when he spent the day with you, we'd take Emmett's this time."

"Sounds good." I said as confidently as I could. I clambered in and tried, without success, to buckle the harness-seatbelt.

"Here. Let me do it." She said, reaching over and locking my buckle into place with ease. Then, she started up the beast of a vehicle and drove off.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked.

"I thought we might go shopping and get you some _real _cloths." She said. "In Paris."

"We're going to Paris!" I shouted. "Just like that?"

"Yeah." She said, looking at me like I was a buffoon. "We can take the plane."

"You have a plane. I should have guessed." I said. "I mean, you've probably got your own country."

"Not quite." She said. "Though we probably could. So like I was saying, we'll go shopping in Paris and then go a little clubbing. There's nothing like a club in Europe."

She drove us to a small airport and we got on the small plane that the Cullens owned. In the inside, it had comfy chairs and a drink bar.

"Hi Chuck." Said Rosalie to the pilot. He couldn't have been older than twenty-five and was good looking for a human. "This is Bella. She's going with me today."

"Nice to meet you Bella." Said Chuck. He had British accent.

"Nice to meet you too." I said.

"Come on Chuck. We have to beat air traffic." Rosalie said and ushered me into the plane. I sat on one of the comfy chairs and as we took off, I clung to the chair so tight my knuckles turned white. Meanwhile, Rosalie just sat in her chair, looking at a magazine, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

"So how many times have you been to Paris?" I asked her when we were in the air.

"More than I can count. Emmett and I even lived there once." She replied.

"Really. That must have been exciting." I said, trying to sound interested.

"Not really." She said. "It was a long time ago and I hadn't quite grasped the language."

"Oh." I said. "I can't even imagine how hard it must be to learn another language, especially French."

"Yeah. But I'm pretty good at it now." She said. "I can ask for directions and order food, not that I've ever had to do either."

"Today you might." I said.

"Maybe." She agreed. "Hey Chuck. How much longer are we going to be up here?"

"Half hour." He replied. "I'm making good time."

"Yeah. That will be about an hour up here." She said. "That was pretty fast. Faster than I could get us there."

"Rosalie?" I asked. "Does he know what you are?"

"Yes." She said. "He is a vampire too. He belongs to the family in Alaska."

The rest of the way there, we looked at about 100 teen magazines from around the US and listening to the hottest music from around the world. I also learned a couple phrases I French I might need.

"Okay, say it again." Rosalie ordered.

"Bon jor." I said with a horrid French accent.

"No!" she shouted, trying to keep her temper. "You need to roll it on your tongue. It's one word, not two. Bonjour. Bonjour. Bonjour."

"I'm sorry." I wined.

"It's fine." She said, struggling to compose herself. "Just, stick with me and I'll do all the talking. Kay?"

"Sounds like a plan." I said and relaxed in my chair, happy that there would be no more French lessons . . . for now.

"We'll land in about ten minutes." Chuck called back to us from the cockpit.

"Thanks Chuck." Rosalie called while I prepared myself for the plunge back to earth.

"You don't have to hold on like that." Rosalie said when she noticed what I was doing. "Chuck isn't going to crash the plane."

"Right." I said and hesitantly released the chair.

True to her word, 15 minutes later we were safely in the large airport in Paris.

"Wow. This place is huge."

"Oui." She said and quickly led me toward the door. "Si vous ètes aller à-"

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"If we are going to have enough time to do everything I want to, we had better start now."

We went out of the airport and down the street. We must have walked for about twenty minutes before she found the store she was looking for.

"Let's start here." She said and pulled me by the arm into the store.

She chatted with the clerk for a while and then grabbed many things for me to try on.

The first thing I squeezed into was a short black dress that would have made Charlie pass out if he'd seen me in it. It clung to me like plastic wrap. The back was completely bare. The sleeves went around the top of my arms.

"That looks awesome on you." Rosalie said when I came out of the dressing room. "We should get that one."

"As long as my dad never sees it, we'll be okay." I said and went back into the changing room to try the next thing on.

The next thing was a dark purple puffed out dress. The top had spaghetti straps and the neckline was skinny and went down to my bellybutton.

"That one doesn't look good on you." Rosalie informed me. "You don't have the right figure for it. We'll put that one back." And I ventured back to the changing room.

This continued for about another hour until I had tried everything on that she pulled off a rack for me. He decided to buy only three things and sent about 100 other back to the racks. She paid for them and we left.

"Thank you." I said to her as we walked to the next store. "You really don't have to do this."

"I know." she said. "But I want to. You maybe human, but you're also the only person who will be my Barbie doll."

"I'm finally getting to know you." I said happily. "And if being your Barbie is the only thing I have to do, then I'll gladly do it."

The next store we went to was less fancy and had more everyday cloths. There, I tried on a number of pant and shirt combinations. My favorite one was a pair of black silk pants and a dark red and black silk Japanese like shirt. And luckily Rosalie liked the way it looked on me, so we got it. We also got a short purple denim skirt and a black shirt that was solid fabric on the shoulders and then the rest of the sleeve was lace.

"Then, we went for lunch. We went to a little café that served lots of things I could read. But, I told Rosalie what I wanted and she ordered it.

I ate my salad in silence and thought about Edward. I missed him more than ever for some reason. It seemed like he had been gone for a year.

"What's the matter?" Rosalie asked me, noticing something was wrong.

"I miss Edward." I admitted.

"I know how you feel." She said. "I miss Emmett. We usually go hunting together but this time we didn't. It feels kind of weird being here while he's off hunting."

"That's exactly how I feel." I said. "We really aren't that different, are we? I mean in the way we feel about our guys."

"Yep." She agreed, smiling for the first time at me. "But I'm not going to let it get me down, and neither should you. We can still have fun without them."

"Definitely." I said. "I did have a life before I met him and I had fun. So him being gone for a couple days shouldn't a problem at all."

"Besides, they'll be back tonight." She said, looking at me to see what my reaction would be. "We can keep preoccupied until then."

I finished my lunch with new enthusiasm. Edward was coming back tonight. I could find something to keep myself busy with until then, after all, I was bonding with Rosalie, in Paris!


	8. More Bonding Part 3

**_Note: This will be my last chapter for this one for a little while. I got a great idea for a new fanfic and am going to work on that for a little while. But I will be adding more to this, just not as often as I have been. _**

**_And now, without further addoo:_**

More Bonding

Part 3

The next couple stores we went to were about the same as the last few. We only bought a couple things and Rosalie even found a something for herself.

It was a long navy blue dress that had slits in the sides. It looked gorgeous on her for the first twenty minutes she walked around and posed in it. Then, I got kind of sick of her waltzing around the store asking all the employees if she looked good in it. (Or at least that's what I think she was saying. I don't speak French, remember.)

But, she finally decided it was good enough for her and had them pack it up with my new floral shirt.

"Next, we'll go to my _favorite _store." She said, as we turned onto another street full of stores.

"What kind of store is this one?" I asked, petrified.

"An accessory store." She replied.

"Like jewelry and stuff?" I had never really worn jewelry or stuff like that. I only owned a couple necklaces and bracelets.

"Stuff?" she asked, offended. "Shoes, purses, scarves, sunglasses, and yes, jewelry too. How can you not know this? Aren't you a girl?"

"Yes, but I don't do shopping like this. And I don't really . . . have any accessories."

"Well now you do." She said. "But enough of that, come on, we have to get there before all the early afternoon rush starts." And she dragged me further down the street until we reached the store. Its windows were boarded up so you couldn't see inside it.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" I asked, starring skeptically at the boarded windows.

"Yep." She said. "They're waiting for us. I told them I was going to be coming and I guess they closed the place up for me. I'm their biggest customer, so I get special treatment." She sniggered.

We knocked on the door and a short, thin woman came to the door. When she saw Rosalie, she opened the door widely and welcomed us in. Rosalie chatted with her for a moment and then dragged me toward the first display case of items.

"Look at this necklace." She said, holding up a gold chain. The pendent on it was gorgeous. It was a flower that was made out of sapphire crystals. "It would mach your new dress perfectly."

"You're right." I agreed, not sure which dress she was referring to.

"We'll get it then." she said and placed it on the counter to keep. She then found a pair of heart shaped earrings that had rubies on them.

"Now we need to find you some shoes." She said and dragged me toward a huge display of footwear.

First, she had me try on a pair of tall leather stiletto boots; I took two steps in them and also feel and broke my neck.

"I'm sorry Rosalie, but I don't think these are going to work." I admitted as nicely as I could.

"You're right." She said. "They make your calves look huge. Take them off."

I did as she said and she instantly gave me another pair of shoes. These were flat shoes that look like something Middle Eastern women wear. I put them on and they were definitely more comfortable than the last pair and I could actually walk in these.

"Those are much better." She commented. "But you still need at least on pair of heels." She went back over to the wall of shoes while I slipped the ones I had on off and put them back into the box Rosalie had pulled them out of.

"Try these." She said when she returned from her search and handed me a box with two-inch heels in it. They were black and strappy, but look manageable . . . maybe. I put my foot into one of them and them fastened the straps up my ankle. Then, I did the same with the other.

"There." I said and stood up off the bench I had been sitting on. I walk down an open space as if it were a runway and then walked back to her, without tripping once.

"Wow." She said. "Someone's coordinated." I laughed.

"Yeah, sure, for the moment."

"Alright, I think we'll take those too." And she pulled them off my feet and put them back in their box. She then took one last look around the store to make sure she hadn't missed anything and then paid for everything.

"I think that went well." She said. She called a taxi over to the curb and we got in. "So now we're going to do that clubbing I promised." She stopped the cab about a block away and took all our bags out of the trunk of the car.

"We can put them in a locker in the club." She said. "But first we need to change." She led me to the club door, flashed a card of some sort at the man at the front door, and went inside. There was a locker room type place where we changed and put our bags. She insisted that I wear the first dress that we got; the short black one. I also put the new strappy shoes on. She had been right, they did match well.

"You almost look like a super model." She informed me when I came out with the dress on again. "I think it looks better on you this time than it did the first time you put it on."

"So what exactly are we going to do out there?" I asked. I had never been to a club before. I didn't know what they did there, besides dance.

"We'll find some guys to dance with, maybe have something to drink, and then go home." After she said that, she practically had to pry my fingers off the door frame to get me to go out, but once I was and was listening to the and watching Rosalie flirt with another guy every five minutes, it was kind of fun, though I swore to her I wasn't going to set a foot on the dance floor.

"Hello." Said a voice next to me. I t was a guy and he was speaking English! Though he had a French accent. He was taller than Edward adn, as far as I could tell through the smoke from the club fog machines and the neon lights, he had messy red hair.He also had unusually whit skin, though not as white as the Cullens', more like as pale as mine. "Umm, your friend told me I might get e dance out of you." He said.

I looked at Rosalie on the dance floor. She looked back at me and winked.

"I'm Will, by the way." He added.

"Bella." I said. "And I'm not a very good dancer."

"That's okay, neither am I." He said. I tried not to show him that I really didn't want to, but I think it got through. "We could wait until a slow song comes on." He offered and as he said this, a slow song came on.

"Alright." I said hesitantly, though I could kind of slow dance, or at least I could with Edward.

As soon as I thought this, my heart sank. I missed him so much. It seemed like an eternity since I had last seen him.

I danced with Will for the rest of the song and when it was over, I told him I had to go.

"Rosalie." I called to her. She came over to me. "Can we go now? All this loud music is giving me a headache."

"Sure." She replied and said good-bye to the guy she had been dancing with. We went back into the locker room and grabbed our stuff. She hailed another cab and told the driver to take us to the airport, where Chuck was waiting for us.

We clambered in the plane and took off. I was soooo happy to be going home. Maybe Edward would be there when I got there. Hopefully. If I didn't see him soon, I would probably explode!

But of course, 15 minutes on the plane and I was asleep. Rosalie woke me up when we were on the runway and helped me out of the plane. Then, Chuck carried me to Emmett's Jeep and Rosalie drove me home, or at least I thought it was home.

"Bella. Bella, wake up." I smelled the fragrant small of his breath and opened my eyes a centimeter to see if it was really him. It was!

"Edward!" I shouted and sat up quickly from the couch I was lying on in the Cullen's house. I jump-attack-hugged him, not ever wanting to let him go.

"Yes Bella, it's me." He said calmly. "I really need to get you home."

"What! You finally get home and then you want to leave me?"

"Of course not. I just don't want Charlie t worry too much. I'll sneak back up in through your window of course. Don't I always."

"Yes." I nodded and let him carry me into the car and to my house.

The last thing I remember before I fell asleep on my bed was his deep black eyes looking right through me.


	9. Author's Note

Author's Note

If you are curious about why Edward went hunting for a days and when he comes back, has black eyes . . .

If you are wondering what the hell is up with this William guy . . .

I am writing a new fanfic called "When Nature Calls." That explains this all and more.

Note: I know the title makes you want to go to he bathroom, but it has a meaning, trust me!!!

Thanks!


	10. Mind Over Matter

Mind over Matter

It was September 13th, _her _birthday. All day at school, my love and Edward had been talking about it, the gifts they would give her, how they would surprise her, while I stood around, waiting for it all to be over.

Don't get me wrong, I like the girl. She's nice and accepts us for what we truly are, animals. She even admires us for it. If she only knew. If she knew what it was like to not be able to have any normal friends for fear of making them your dinner, to be considered a freak by society just because you are trying to protect them. If she knew how this felt, she wouldn't want to be one of us, not at all.

I did have one thing to look forward to, however. Rosalie and Emmett had returned from Africa for the celebration. I had spent some of the afternoon helping Emmett put the new stereo in her truck because Edward was at her house, keeping her busy. I enjoyed time alone with Emmett. He was entertaining and I got to use my gift on him almost constantly. He kept me on my toes. Then, I went inside to help with the decorations.

"Alice, my love. How may I help you?" I asked her as I came in the door from the garage in the back yard.

"Jasper." She squealed and jumped off the top of the ten-foot ladder she had been standing on to hang streamers. "Would you like to finish hanging streamers for me? You know I have trouble, even with a ladder."

"Of course my short on." I chimed. "But it's going to cost you." She smiled the sheepish smile I loved and waltzed over, giving me a soft kiss on the lips.

"You can have the rest of the payment later." She said and walked away to blow up some balloons. I smiled at myself and walked over to the ladder to finish the work Alice had started.

After I finished those, I went to help Esme wrap gifts and when Carlisle got home, I assisted him with some work he had brought with him.

The girl and Edward arrived right when my sweet had said they would. She was angry about something, probably the party. She had been complaining all day about not wanting one and if I had been Edward or anyone else in the family, I would have respected her wishes. But I am not that high up in the family and my opinion was quickly pushed aside.

She of course knew they were going to do something like this and I could sense she was happy, even if she didn't show it.

Oh, how hard it was to be in the same room with her. They all know what a difficult time I have with her blood, yet they insisted that I attend. If it hadn't been for Alice asking me as well, I would have kindly excused myself five minutes after she arrived and that would have been the end of it, but I knew Alice would have been disappointed in me if I had, so I put up with it.

She smelled so fragrant, like a field full of freshly blooming flowers in spring. All I could think about the whole tome was running over to her, tipping her head sideways and sinking my teeth into her perfectly sculpted neck. Edward, though, was too wound up in his excitement of partaking in the human activity that he didn't notice what I was thinking. I stayed as far across the room as I could from her. I held my breath as long as I dared. I even tried to think of excused to leave the room, anything that might get his attention. I repeated his name over and over in my head, but nothing worked.

When they revealed to her the job Emmett and I had performed on her truck, she was excited and flattered. I had come to realize, though, that Edward must not have ever told her how much money we possess. No matter what we give her, she insists we not spend money on her. This is one of the things I do not understand about her. Even Alice likes to have money spent on her.

When Alice was about to hand her one of the presents from us, I decided I needed to get closer, to stand by Alice. I needed to tell her that I couldn't stay any longer.

I held my breath and took a step toward Alice. The girl was now undoing the neatly wrapped present that Alice had handed her, one of the ones that I had wrapped. Then, tragedy struck.

While lifting wrapping off the present, the girl had given herself a paper cut. Instinctively, I let the air flow into me. It smelled sweeter than anything I had ever smelled. It was so intoxicating. I wasn't going to be able to control myself. I shouted Edward's name one last time, trying as hard as I could to not let the animal inside me take over. I closed my eyes and plugged my nose. I had to get out. But it was too late.

Edward lunged for her, knocking her and a glass vase off the piano. It shattered and there was more blood. The animal inside me took over. I gave a loud snarl and was about to lung head first at both of them, but, luckily, Emmett grabbed me by the arms. I continued to strive for her, wanting her blood more than I had ever wanted any before. I didn't want to hurt her though. I prayed for them to get me out of there quick and they did. They hauled me out the back door into the fresh, cool, night air.


	11. Suprise Part 1

Surprise!!!

For the third time in ten minutes, Alice inhaled and exhaled a long sigh.

"What's the matter?" I asked her. We were going to Port Angles for the day to catch the new movie I wanted to see. I just figured it was the fact that I was driving and she wasn't that had set her off, but now, it seemed like more.

"I just feel bad taking you away from Edward today. I feel like he should be here instead of me." She replied.

"Why?" I questioned.

She pondered for a minute on weather she was going to tell me or not. "Today is June 20th, right?" she finally said.

"Yes." I replied and searched my head for possible events or holidays, none came.

"105 years ago today, Edward Anthony Mason Jr. was born." She replied.

It took me a minute to realize what she had said. I had never heard anyone use his old name before. "It's Edward's birthday!" I shouted. "Why didn't he tell me?"

"Vampires generally don't celebrate birthdays, not like _you_ do." Said she. "It's a part of our past and we try not to remember what that was like."

"Then why would it matter to Edward if I were with you today."

"Just because we don't celebrate birthdays, doesn't change the fact of what the day is." She replied.

"Well then, I'll just have to get him a present while we're shopping." I concluded.

"What?" Alice asked alarmed. "You can't buy him a present."

"Why not?" I whined.

"Because, he has everything he could ever want and your not supposed to know."

"So I'll tell him that I found out in an old news paper. He'll never know as long as you don't tell him." I smiled ay her mischievously. She sighed again, though this time in annoyance, but didn't protest anymore.

After a little while in silence, Alice turned to me and asked, "So what are you going to get him?"

"I don't know." I replied. I had been trying to come up with something, but, like Alice had stated, he had everything. "I'll find something."

So, when we got to Port Angles, Operation Birthday Present began.

Our movie didn't start for another hour, so we had a little time to shop before hand.

"Why don't we try here?" I asked Alice, pointing to a CD store. I had been to it a couple times. It had a good selection of the newest music.

Alice just nodded and we went in. "Does he have this one?" I asked her, holding up the newest CD for Trashcan Inferno, our favorite rock band.

"Yep." She said, so I put it back and started looking for another. She also shot down the Random Ninjas and a new band; The Neon Gnomes.

"Grr." I shouted in frustration and stormed out of the store, Alice quietly following behind me.

"The movie's going to start in ten minutes." She said, as I started looking around for another store to go in. "We had better head for the theatre. I nodded and allowed her to lead me to it, all the while keeping an eye out for a shop to go in afterwards.

After the movie was over, I had forgotten all about Edward's gift.

"Where should we go for supper?" Alice asked as we were walking out of the movie. It was already 5:00! And then I remembered the gift.

"I'm not hungry." I said. "And I'm going to find a gift for Edward before I eat."

"Bella, I think-"

"No Alice, don't try to talk me out of it. I don't care if he doesn't want anything, I'm going to find him something!" I inhaled deeply, not realizing how much air it had taken to say all that.

"Bella, let me finish." She persisted sternly. "I-think-we-should-go-to-dinner-_first_-and-then-continue-looking. Do you understand?" She said this very lowly, never looking away from my eyes. I, however, looked at her like she had a huge mole on the tip of her nose. Then, I coked my head sideways and thought about what she had said.

"Oh!" I said, the truth hitting like a ton of bricks. She had had a vision! "Okay, where are we going?"

"Amulia's. It's a fancy restaurant on the other side of the town." She responded. I nodded and we went back to my car.

"Why don't you let me drive." She offered, just as I was about to get in.

"Alright." I said and got back out and went to the other side to get in.

"So what exactly are we going to here?" I asked, as she pushed the speed limit my truck would willingly go. I another couple seconds, it would start wining.

"You'll see when we get there." She responded and pushed the petal down even more. I cringed as my truck protested with a harsh cry from under the hubcap.


	12. Surprise Part 2

Surprise

Part 2

"What are we going to find Edward in a fancy restaurant?" I asked Alice for about the thousandth time in ten minutes. "Some leftovers or something?" She didn't respond. She had stopped after about the third time.

You really need a new car was her response. "I'm getting very tired of having to actually go the speed limit."

"If you tell me what's at the restaurant, I'll let you get me a new car for Christmas." I offered, hoping the temptation of getting me a new car would over throw her excitement of knowing something that I didn't.

"How about I get you a new car for Christmas and you sit there and be quiet until we get to the restaurant where you will find what you are looking for?"

"You are so mean." I replied and sat back in my seat in a huff. Alice turned back toward the road and smiled at herself, satisfied at her own intelligence.

When we did finally get to the restaurant, I practically lunged out of the door and sprinted faster than I could ever remember, toward the door.

"Hold on." Alice said, grabbing me by the shirt neck from behind. "This is a fine dining restaurant, remember? You have to pretend that you have some manners while we're in there. And don't say anything, I'll take care of it."

"Gotcha." I said and tried to proceed to the door.

"Why don't you, let me go first?" she asked. "I know them."

"Them?" I asked, confused. "Who's them?" But she didn't answer, just kept going; I followed.

When we got to the front desk, Alice started talking to the seating person in a different language; French I'm assumed and then he led us to a table, in the middle of the room, right by a huge grand piano. Someone was playing it, but not as good as Edward would have.

Alice ordered some food while I admired the piano player. The more I watched him, the worse I felt about leaving Edward home alone on his birthday. Sighing, I turned to Alice one last time and asked, "What are we doing here?"

"You will find out in ten minutes." She replied and went on sipping wine. I checked my watch out of curiosity; in ten minutes it would be seven. So, I sat impatiently, waiting for the ten minutes to pass.

"Well?" I said, once eleven minutes had gone by. She kept looking at her glass, but then looked up at where the piano man had been and nodded for me to look.

The man that had taken us to our seats was standing by the piano, looking extremely worried. "Go ask him what's wrong." She insisted. "Then you'll find out why we're here." I gave her a strange look, but did what she said nonetheless. I had learned to listen to Alice when she ordered me to do stuff.

"Is there something wrong?" I said when I was standing next to the man.

"Nothing you can help me with." He replied hotly.

"Please, tell me. My friend said I might be able to help." I persisted.

"Oh? And who is this friend of yours?"

"She's sitting right over there?" I said, pointing toward Alice who was sitting at our table all by herself, looking like a princess.

"Oh, Mademoiselle Cullen." Eh said, surprised.

"Yes." I nodded.

"Well. Our piano player just quit because he said we weren't paying him enough and I have a huge party coming in and no piano player." He blurted out.

My eyes grew to twice the size of their normal size. This is what Alice had been talking about. I could call Edward and ask him to come and play. It would be great for him to play in front of an audience, he would love it.

"What if I were to tell you that I could get you someone to play, someone even better than the last guy you had here?"

"I would say you were nuts. But out of curiosity, how fast could he be here?"

"At his fastest, twenty minutes, max." I replied confidently.

"Do it." He said and walked away to seat another customer that had just come in the door.

"What did he say?" Alice asked when I came back to our seat.

"Like you don't know." I replied, a huge grin spreading over my faced.

"Now all we have to do is come up with a story that will get him here at record time." She said, looking off into space, trying to think of an idea.

"What if we told him I ran into a light post and are unconscious?" I offered.

"No." she said. "He would tell me to just bring you home." She replied and started to think again. "I got it. Do we even have to tell him what happened? Why don't we just say that you are hurt and he needs to come right away."

"That sounds awesome." I said. "But do it quick. I told that guy he'd be here in twenty minutes."

She nodded and went off to who knows where to call Edward. She returned a couple minutes later.

"He's on his way." She confirmed and sat down, right as our food came.

Half an hour later, there was a loud screech outside the restaurant; car tires. "I think he's here." Alice said.

I nodded and ran for the door to get him. He had probably followed Alice's thoughts here, her helping him immensely.

"What's going on?" he asked, when I came running out the door to meet him. He looked utterly stunned.

"Happy Birthday!" I shouted, giving him a huge hug. "I have a surprise for you."

"How did you know it was my birthday?" He asked. "Did Alice tell you?"

"No." I said quickly. "I found it in an old newspaper."

"Really." He replied skeptically. "Whatever you say.

"Don't scare me like that ever again." He said, as we walked in the front door of the restaurant. "I thought something really bad had happened to you."

"Alice is a very convincing actress." I said. "Now for your surprise. Are you in a piano mood?"

"Why?" he asked.

"Because they had a last minute cancellation and need a new player."

"Really?" He asked, excited.

"Yes and I thought you might like to show the world your talent."

"This is great." He said and gave me a long kiss on the lips. "Thank you so much Bella. This is one of the best birthdays I've had in a while." I smiled, happy that he was happy.

We went to waiter man and Edward was playing his first song within minutes. It was the lullaby he wrote for me and once he started playing it, the whole room went silent. People from other rooms also came into our room to listen to the heavenly music. Waiters and waitresses stopped serving just to listen to Edward and his song.

When the lullaby was done, people looked around in confusion, as if they hadn't even noticed that they had ceased their conversations. And then he started the next.


	13. Flash Back Part 1

Flash Back

Part 1

1915

"Hello." The man at the door said pleasantly. "Is your mother home?"

"Yes." I replied. "Are you the doctor?"

"Yes, I am." He replied. "How is your father doing?"

"The same." I said and looked at the floor. I was only fourteen and my father was sick, again. He seemed to always be sick. My mother had called for a doctor as soon as his health had plummeted to an alarming level. This time though, they had sent a new doctor. He was very young, probably not more that fifteen years older than me.

I led him in and took him down the hall toward my father's room. "Mother." I announced the arrival of the doctor to her.

"Edward. Haven't I told you before not to answer the door? You should let one of the maids do that, its' their job."

"Yes mother." I replied and left the room. The doctor would be here for hours before he thought of something to give my father that would make him tired enough to sleep the sickness off and then claim that it was his knowledge in medicine that had cured him. He would be like all the others.

Bored, I went outside to play with the puppy my father had given me on my fourteenth birthday. It was a cute brown and white spaniel. I threw a ball a couple times and the puppy ran after it and brought it back. Then, the doctor came to the door.

"Edward." He said. "Would you please come inside? I have something to tell you and your mother."

"Yes sir." I said and headed for the door, the puppy completely leavening my mind.

I came in my father's room to find my mother crying in the chair next to him. He wasn't moving. I looked up at the doctor and asked, "Is he dead?"

"Oh no!" he replied. "He's still alive, but I don't know for how much longer. He is very sick and I don't think he is going to get better." His made my mother's sobs intensify.

"Isn't there something you can give him? Some foreign medicine or something?" I asked, looking into his eyes for the first time. He had the strangest golden eyes that looked like they should have belonged on the face of a young girl, not a man in his twenties.

"I'm afraid not." I said glumly. "Nothing that I know of."

"How long does he have, doctor?" my mother was able to get out between her sobbing.

"Maybe a couple years at the most." He replied. I suppose we had known this when he had gotten sick for the second or even third time, but we hadn't wanted to admit it, not like this doctor did. Did he not know who we were, to be so straight with us? No, this physician was different.

"Can he stay here, or does he have to go to the hospital?" was the next thing my mother was able to ask.

"He may stay here for know." He confirmed. "But will eventually have to be moved, when the pain intensifies, but that shouldn't be for a while still."

"Who are you?" I finally blurted out. I had been thinking this question since he walked in the door. I had never seen him before and had only heard that he was new to town.

"Edward." My mother scolded. "Don't be so rude."

"No." the doctor said to her "It's quite alright." He turned to me. "My name is Carlisle. Carlisle Cullen. I just recently graduated from medical school and moved here about two months ago."

I nodded, satisfied, and then looked to my mother. "I'm going to go for a walk." I told her. "I'll be back before dinner."

"Don't get lost." She cautioned. "Or hurt. One person dieing-" she choked on the word. "in this family is enough."

I didn't respond to her caution, but turned on my heel and left the room. When I got to the front door, the started running. I wanted to leave it all behind. My parents, the sickness, the doctor, all of it and I didn't know why. I loved my parents and the doctor had never done anything to me, I had only met him about an hour ago. But I had a funny feeling about him, like he wasn't what he seemed.

After I had run to the point where I was wheezing for breath, I stopped and started walking. There was a stream near by, so I went to go and sit on one of the huge rocks that sat by it. I often like to come here; it was peaceful and, as far as I knew, no one knew about it. It was my own secret hiding place, where I could go and let my worries wash away with the current of the stream.

"Are you alright?" It was a voice behinds me. I turned around and found the doctor standing a few feet away.

"Why did you follow me?" I asked him, throwing him the meanest glare I could muster up. "Don't you think I might want to be alone?"

"Yes, I could see why you wouldn't want to be disturbed." He replied and came to sit down next to me. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't try to do anything drastic."

"Like what? Throw my self in the stream and attempt to drown myself in three inches of water?"

"Something like that." He replied and gave me a knowing smile. "I did the same thing you are doing when I was your age." He continued and stared at the stream with his sparkling gold eyes.

"Why?" I asked. "Did your father die too?"

"Not exactly." He said. "Well, not then anyway. My mother died when I was still an infant, so my father was the only adult influence I ever had in my life."

"That doesn't sound so bad." I said. "At least he was healthy enough to raise you."

"You didn't know my father." He continued. "He was very strict and wanted me to be just like him; cruel and incapable of showing compassion."

"What did you do?" I questioned, now interested in what he had to say.

"I would run away to the forest, sit on the ground, in the middle of all the trees and pretend I was somewhere else. Somewhere were my mother was still alive and my father cared about me; the kind of family you have."

"But what good is a father who can't even get out of bed to do things with me?"

"Edward." He sighed. "Don't you get it? It doesn't matter that your father can't physically do things with you. You can still spend time with him and your mother, even if it's just sitting and talking with them." He smiled at me once more, ruffled my hair, and got up to leave.

"Wait." I called after him. He stopped and turned around. "How did your father die?"

"He died an old man." He said, and then disappeared.


	14. Flash Back Part 2

Flashback

Part 2

1916

It was more than a year after my father had started taking treatments from the Doctor. Carlisle would come to our house once a week to give medicine to him and would then stay to visit with my mother and me. He had given us new hope and his abnormal actions had become a normal thing in our life.

My father, however, was not getting better, though he wasn't getting worse, so he continued to get a treatment regularly.

One day, I was waiting for Carlisle to come, but he didn't.

"Mother." I said, coming into the house.

"Your mother isn't here." Said the maid that was nearest to me. "She went out for a ride about an hour ago. I would suspect her back any minute."

"Thank you." I said and walked back out to the front yard to wait for Carlisle.

Another hour passed and Carlisle still didn't come and neither did my mother. "Where are they?" I wondered. "I should go out and look for my mother at least." I saddled my favorite horse and started down the road.

About a mile down the road, I saw two bodies on the ground. As I got closer, I realized one of them was Carlisle's and the other. . . was my mother. I cried out in fear, afraid that they were both dead.

"Carlisle!" I shouted and jumped off the horse right next to them.

"I'm fine." He said, "But I don't think your mother is."

"What happened?" I asked, bending down closer to my mother.

"I was running late today and was coming down the road and found her, just lying here."

"Where's her horse?" I asked.

"She must have fallen off." He confirmed. "I didn't think a simple slip could have done this."

"We need to get her home." I said.

"No." he said. "She needs medical attention. She probably has many broken bones."

"Fine." I gave in. "We can put her on my horse." He nodded and started to pick her up off the ground. I brought the horse over and we laid her over the back. Then, we started off as fast as we dared.

At the hospital, Carlisle took her to the examination table and then sent a nurse out to me.

"Doctor Cullen advises you to go home, Master Mason. You shouldn't keep your household worried. You can come back first thing in the morning."

I thought about it for a while. I didn't want to leave her, but I should go back and tell all the maids what had happened.

"All right." I decided. "If anything changes send a message to me, no matter what time it is."

"Yes." She replied and went back to help Carlisle. I got on my horse and rode home.

1918

A year and a half passed and my mother did get better, though not completely. She was always weak and stayed inside most of the time. She also had trouble walking, but was, never the less, her strong willed self. Father was still continuing his treatment, but was getting worse. In a couple days, Carlisle would take him to the hospital, where he would stay the remainder of his life. Mother was very upset and didn't want to let him go, but knew she must.

Since this year was my seventeenth birthday, I was old enough to marry and my mother was pushing the subject constantly.

"What about that the Crawell girl, Molly I believe her name is. She's very pretty and likes you."

"Mother." I said and shook my head in disgust.

"Now, now." Elizabeth." Carlisle would say. "You mustn't push him to do things he doesn't want to."

"No." she replied sarcastically. "I shouldn't. So he can end up like you Carlisle Cullen. Twenty six and even a girlfriend?"

"My case is different." He said. "My profession does not allow time for a spouse, no matter how much I would enjoy one." I tired to hold back the urge to laugh, but it was too strong. I started to laugh uncontrollably.

"And what is so funny, Edward?" she asked.

"You two argue like an old married couple." I managed between laughing gasps. Then they both started to laugh as well.

"You are right." My mother said, looking at Carlisle. He nodded in agreement. I thought I saw something of longing in his eyes, but wasn't sure. Then he closed his eyes again and started to laugh again.

I hadn't noticed, but there were footsteps coming down the hall, rapidly. One of the maids that looked after my father, Lucy I believe her name was, came rushing in.

"Doctor." She gasped. "Doctor we need you right away." He nodded and quickly got up.

"Stay here Elizabeth." He commanded and rushed down the hall.

"Go and help him." She ordered me and I followed him.

When I got to my fathers room, he was struggling for breath, but too weak to fight hard enough. And then the gasping stopped and he was still. Carlisle sighed and when he saw me, gasped in surprise.

"Edward." He tried to say but I ran out of the room and out of the house, to the stream where I went to think. Carlisle arrived a minute later.

"Edward. Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine." I said, throwing rocks into the stream to watch the ripples they made. He came up behind me and sat down next to me. "What did he die of?"

"He had a heart condition Edward, you knew that."

"No, I mean what did he really die of? I know it wasn't his heart; there was no way he could have turned that bad that quickly."

He exhaled deeply and then continued, "Have you heard of the sudden influenza outbreak?"

"Yes, but if he had had that, he would have been showing signs of it."

"This is only a theory, but I think he might have had the early stages of it. If he had, it would have just been too much for his body to handle."

"But then-" I began to feel dizzy.

"Edward, are you feeling alright?"

"Yes." I said. "As I was saying, he would have-" A sudden sickness came into my stomach and I threw up. I swayed back and forth and almost fell into the water, but Carlisle caught me.

"Edward! Edward! Can you hear me?" He shouted. I tried to answer him, but was to weak. He picked me up and started carrying me to the house. But I lost consciousness before we got there.


	15. Flash Back Part 3

Flashback

Part 3

1917

When I woke up, I was in one of the rooms in the hospital. I looked around and found that there were lots of other people on beds all around me. Then I spotted my mother, right next to me. She was unconscious and looked even weaker than normal.

"Edward! You're awake!" I was Carlisle. "I was beginning to think I would never see your green eyes again."

"What am I doing here Carlisle?" I asked.

"It appears my theory about your fathers sickness was correct. I'm afraid both you and your mother have it, but you're both very strong and I'm sure you will pull though." he tried to smile sincerely, but I could see that he was very worried underneath.

"How is she?" I asked, weakly pointing at my mother.

"She's been better." he admitted. "But she's not too bad . . . yet." I sighed from exhaustion and lay back on the bed.

When I awoke again, my mother was sitting on a chair by my side. "Mother." I said.

"Shh, Edward." she commanded, lifting a hand to her lips. "You are too weak to talk. You should get as much rest as you can so you can get better.

"But what about you?" I protested. "You are even weaker then I am. You should be in bed as well."

"I'll lay down in a little while. Now you go back to sleep."

"Not until you are in bed." I retorted.

"Excuse me." said Carlisle, coming into the room. He sighed. "Elizabeth, what did I tell you? If you ever want to get better, you need to get some sleep."

"I will." she said. "Just as soon as I know Edward is doing alright."

"Well, I can tell you that." he pulled out a stethoscope and put it to my heart. Then, he opened my mouth and looked inside. "Yes." he said. "I think he is going to make a full recovery in no time."

"You liar." she sneered. "You are just saying that to make me get in bed."

"Maybe I am and maybe I'm not, that's a risk you will just have to take."

"Hmm." she said, but got up, walked over to her bed, and climbed in under the covers. "Happy?"

"Yes." replied Carlisle, smiling sweetly. "Now I have brought a warm drink for both of you. It won't taste too good, but it will make you feel better." He handed both of us a mug of steaming liquid. My mother grabbed it and started to drink while Carlisle helped me with mine.

"Why don't you let me do that?" she asked, looking at him angrily. "He is my son. I should take care of him while he is sick."

"No!" Carlisle said sternly. "You lay in that bed and get better. Don't worry about him. I have everything under control." She sighed, handed him the empty mug, and lay down fully in the bed, drifting off to sleep in a matter of seconds.

"She's been by your side for a day." Carlisle said. "She wouldn't eat anything until you woke up."

"What was in her drink?" I asked. There was no way she could have fallen to sleep that quickly on her own, not with her determination.

"Just something to make her sleep." he replied and took my mug and hers out of the room.

1918

It had been nearly six months since my mother and I had entered the hospital and neither of us was doing well, though she was much better than I was. In fact, all of the doctors were surprised that I had lasted even that long. All except for Carlisle. He knew I was strong enough. But not even he thought I would survive.

"Well." He said one day, after conducting his daily check of my mother and I. "The same as before. Go back to sleep now Edward, while I have a talk with your mother."

"Am I a child?" I asked. "That I should be kept out of conversations?"

"There are some conversations even certain adults should not be part of." He retorted. "Now go to sleep before I make you." I attempted to cross my arms in annoyance, but was too weak, so I just lay back and pretended to go to sleep.

They talked about nonsense for what seemed like an hour, then they stopped, and I can imagine Carlisle bent over to see if I was really sleeping. I must have fooled him because he started getting to the point.

"I don't know how long he's going to last." He said.

"What do you mean?" she asked, alarmed. "He looks healthy enough, compared to most of the people here, and he's lasted this long, hasn't he?"

"Yes, but his body is beginning to give up." he replied. "His heart beat was slower than normal today, and he's getting weaker. It may be only a matter of days, maybe a couple weeks."

"Well what about me?" she asked. "How much time do I have left?"

"You, Elizabeth, are actually doing a little better. Your heartbeat was stronger today and you aren't as pale as you have been."

"So you're saying that I'm going to live, but he isn't?"

"Yes. I'm afraid that is what it's beginning to look like."

"I won't live without him." She said, her voice beginning to break. "He is all I have left."

"I realize that." He replied. "But you must promise me something."

"What?" she asked weakly.

"You must promise that when he gets bad, you will not give up. Do you promise?"

"I can't." she replied honestly. "I can't promise you something like that because that is one promise that I can't keep."

"Can you promise me something?" she asked.

"What?" he replied, exasperated.

"No matter what happens to me, you will not let my son die."

He sighed deeply. "I will do everything I can for him then." he finally said.

"Good." She affirmed and passed out in her bed from exhaustion.

The next day, Carlisle started a new treatment on me, one he said he had learned in Europe some years before. It consisted of feeding me a blend of many unknown substances that where all mixed together into a drink. It was the worst tasting thing I could ever remember having, even worse then when I was little and the boys down the street had dared me to eat a worm in order to prove I wasn't a scaredy cat.

But I drank it nonetheless. I couldn't let my mother down like that. If anyone were going to die, it would be her. And if she did, I would still live, just for her.

I had to get better. I wasn't done living yet. There were many things I still wanted to do. I couldn't let this sickness get the better of me.

After that, I fell back asleep, or so I thought. I actually passed out and was out for a week. I had probably slipped into a shallow coma, but I came out of it.

"Edward." Carlisle said when I finally opened my eyes after so long. "Don't scare us like that." Instinctively, I looked over at mother to see how she was doing.

"How-" I couldn't get anymore out, but he must have understood because he replied, "She isn't doing to well. About a day ago she got very bad. I'm afraid it's only a matter of hours." He looked like he wanted to cry, but for some reason couldn't. I felt bad for him.

"Oh." I said and went back to sleep. I couldn't watch my mother die. That was just something I wasn't going to do, though I felt bad I couldn't be by her side; holding her hand at the very least.

I felt as if I had let her down, by just laying there. She wanted so much for me before she went and I couldn't even sit by her side to show her that I would be okay.

That was the last thing time I remember seeing her. The next thing I remember is my whole body feeling as if it were on fire. Then I was somewhere else though. And Carlisle was by my side, telling me it was alright.


End file.
